IntercomRocket.ChatIntercom vs Rocket.Chat

Intercom vs Rocket.Chat: five seats for $425 or $0

A customer messaging platform against an open-source team chat with omnichannel: Rocket.Chat is $425 a month cheaper for five people. Where Intercom and Rocket.Chat split, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Intercom if your support lives in the website messenger and in-app, and you want product tours and outbound messages in the same tool. Pick Rocket.Chat if you need on-premise or sovereign hosting for both team chat and customer chat. For five people, Rocket.Chat is $425 a month cheaper than Intercom ($425 a month on Intercom against $0 on Rocket.Chat), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, which only Rocket.Chat's figure comes under. Intercom and Rocket.Chat both include website chat and email in the price. Neither Intercom nor Rocket.Chat includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Intercom against Rocket.Chat, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceIntercomIntercomRocket.ChatRocket.Chat
Built aroundThe Messenger · tickets came laterTeam chat you can self-host · customer channels bolted on
Entry plan$29/seat/mo · Essential: inbox and MessengerFree · Starter, self-managed
Chat in the price$29/seat/mo · Essential, with ticketsQuote · Pro and Enterprise
AI agentFrom $0.99 per outcome · Fin, printed on the pricing pageAdd-on · quoted
Copilot for agents$29/agent/moAdd-on
Free planNone · 14-day trialYes · Starter for small teams

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    IntercomIntercom

    As a message in the Messenger, with ticketing available from Essential. Rocket.Chat has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    As a livechat room inside the same server your team chats on, routed to an agent department. Intercom raises a ticket where Rocket.Chat keeps a conversation.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    IntercomIntercom

    $29 buys the inbox, Messenger and ticketing. Advanced at $85 adds workflows and round-robin routing. $425 for five people, against $0 on Rocket.Chat.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    Starter is free and self-managed for small teams; Pro and Enterprise are quoted per user. $0 for five people, against $425 on Intercom.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    IntercomIntercom

    Fin is $0.99 or more per outcome on every plan, printed on the pricing page, on top of seats. Rocket.Chat meters AI (add-on) above the seats as well.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    AI is an add-on priced in the quote; self-hosters can wire their own models. Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    IntercomIntercom

    Messenger and email on every plan; WhatsApp, SMS and phone are pay-as-you-go lines. The same set as Rocket.Chat.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    Livechat widget, email inbox, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Messenger through apps. The same set as Intercom.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    IntercomIntercom

    Product tours, banners, surveys and outbound campaigns; Proactive Support Plus is $99 a month. Rocket.Chat is an open-source team chat with omnichannel instead.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    The team chat itself, with federation, sovereignty options and on-premise deployment. Intercom is a customer messaging platform instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    IntercomIntercom

    An afternoon for a website-first team: install the Messenger, invite the team, answer. Rocket.Chat is a day or more to deploy the server.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    A day or more to deploy the server; hours for the livechat widget once it runs. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team.

Sources: Intercom pricing · Rocket.Chat pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Intercom Inbox: a conversation list with the Messenger thread and the customer profile
IntercomIntercom. The Intercom Inbox: a conversation list with the Messenger thread and the customer profile
The Rocket.Chat omnichannel view: a livechat room beside the team's channels
Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat. The Rocket.Chat omnichannel view: a livechat room beside the team's channels

Pricing references: Intercom pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Rocket.Chat pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13; needs verification). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Intercom, Rocket.Chat and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureIntercomIntercomRocket.ChatRocket.ChatSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per seat; Fin per outcome; channels metered
Free Starter; quote above
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
None; 14-day trial
Starter, self-managed
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The Messenger, all plans
Livechat widget
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
All plans
Email inbox
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Pay-as-you-go
Through apps
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Via integration
Through apps
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not native
Through apps
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications
It is the team chat
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Fin, trained on your help center
Add-on
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
From $0.99 per outcome, on top of seats
Quoted
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Fin hands to a teammate
Routes to a department
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Included from Essential
Rooms, not tickets
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Visual builder, Advanced and up
Routing and triggers
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports; custom on higher plans
Omnichannel reports
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Desktop apps
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Intercom if

  • Your support lives in the website messenger and in-app, and you want product tours and outbound messages in the same tool.
  • Fin's AI quality matters more to you than its per-outcome price.
  • You need a ticket queue, which Rocket.Chat does not have.
  • Time to the first reply is an afternoon for a website-first team here and a day or more to deploy the server on Rocket.Chat.

Pick Rocket.Chat if

  • You need on-premise or sovereign hosting for both team chat and customer chat.
  • Your team already chats on Rocket.Chat and support should live there.
  • Five people cost $425 a month less than on Intercom ($0 against $425), before AI.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $425 a month on Intercom against $0 on Rocket.Chat for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats, Rocket.Chat meters AI (add-on) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and WhatsApp in the base price, which neither Intercom nor Rocket.Chat includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Intercom on Advanced: $170, $425 and $850 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Rocket.Chat: $0 a month for five (free, self-managed); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $380 less than Intercom and more than Rocket.Chat's $0 for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $755 under Intercom.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Rocket.Chat is an open-source team chat with omnichannel built around team chat you can self-host. Only Rocket.Chat has a free plan (Starter for small teams); Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card. Intercom and Rocket.Chat both include website chat and email in the price. Neither Intercom nor Rocket.Chat includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Intercom (from $0.99 per outcome) and Rocket.Chat (add-on) both meter AI above the seats. Intercom has tickets and Rocket.Chat does not, and only Rocket.Chat ships desktop apps. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team; Rocket.Chat is a day or more to deploy the server.

What each price leaves out

Intercom: Fin AI agent from $0.99 per outcome on every plan; Copilot $29 per agent per month yearly ($35 monthly). WhatsApp, SMS and phone are pay-as-you-go. Rocket.Chat: AI add-on, quoted. Beside Intercom's from $0.99 per outcome and Rocket.Chat's add-on, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Rocket.Chat does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Starter is free; Pro and Enterprise are quoted. Older summaries put Pro near $4 per user.), so they are marked unverified here beside Intercom's, and Rocket.Chat's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    IntercomIntercom$0.99$475
    Rocket.ChatRocket.ChatSee vendorNot quoted
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    IntercomIntercom · 14-day trial, no card
    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat · Starter is free; trials on request
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Intercom vs Rocket.Chat: the questions people ask

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Rocket.Chat is an open-source team chat with omnichannel built around team chat you can self-host. Intercom has tickets and Rocket.Chat does not, and only Rocket.Chat ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential: inbox and Messenger); Rocket.Chat Free (Starter, self-managed).
  • Chat in the price: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential, with tickets); Rocket.Chat Quote (Pro and Enterprise).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Intercom nor Rocket.Chat has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Intercom and Rocket.Chat rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

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